Permanence Order

[Eriskay]

Evening everyone. First time poster but long time lurker while I’ve been going through my adoption journey. I’d like to thank you all for your invaluable support. This board really helps during the ups and downs.

I’m finally lucky enough to be heading to matching panel in a couple of weeks to be matched with a gorgeous wee toot. I’ve been approved for 15 months so I’m so excited to finally be at this stage, after what feels like an eternity. I wondered though if anybody has any idea how long it takes for a permanence order to come through once it has been applied for by an authority. I’m in Scotland and have heard varying reports of timescales so I’m unsure what the average time is. I was told that it can take 6 months but a friend has now mentioned that it is taking much longer than that, due to COVID. I would really appreciate it if anybody has any experience of how long this takes, as it will have an impact on when I can meet my (fingers crossed) child.

Hi,
I cant help with a permanence order but we're doing direct adoption and our LO was placed in January and we were told to expect things to go through towards the end of the year. Birth mum isn't contesting.

Thank you for replying Runner31. It’s direct adoption I’m doing too but due to an issue with her legal status, she can’t come home until the order is through.

You can’t apply for an adoption order until the child is with you for 13 weeks and one day. The permanence order removes parental rights from the birth parents and effectively releases the child for adoption, the adoptive parents then apply for the adoption order. Direct adoption is when the parental rights are removed and the adoption order are done in one process. If the local authority are seeking a permanence order it’s not a direct adoption.

How long really depends on where they are in the process, if they’ve already petitioned the court it’ll depend on when the court has space and whether the birth family contest the process. If they’re still completing the permanence assessment it’ll take a good bit longer.

Most children U.K. Scotland are placed pending adoption (ie not via a permanence order), so the legal status is foster care and then permanence is secured via adoption. There may be good reasons for not placing the child with you until permanence is agreed - I’d check why that is if you’ve not done so already.

The other possibility is that the local authority will be seeking a change to the conditions of the child’s Compulsory Supervision Order which is the legal process that brings the child into care and secures her placement with foster carers. If it’s a change to the CSO to move her residence to you that process is pretty quick in that they’ll just call a Children’s Hearing and the panel will amends the terms of the Order. The adoption process would then continue as direct adoption.

First thing is to check the legal status of your child and the order they are seeking.

Thank you Jellycatspyjamas. I hoped you might answer. I know what the legal status is and it’s apparently quite unusual. They raised it in our first meeting, back at the start of the year, as they wanted to make sure that I understood that she couldn’t come home until the permanence order was through (applied for just after the meeting). They are still keen for us to go to matching panel in a couple of weeks but I just wasn’t sure how long I’d have to wait after that as I’ve heard varying time lines. I suppose it’s just a case of how long is a piece of string with the delay the courts are no doubt experiencing at the moment.

It doesn’t sound like direct adoption if they’re seeking a permanence order pre-placement, but in a way that makes the adoption order easier because the difficult part is already done. Feel free to PM me if I can be of help.

Good luck though, such an exciting time for you, hopefully they’ll be able to fast track the PO.

That’s really kind of you. I’m not really sure how to do it on here but I might take you up on that if I can figure it out 😀.

If you look at the bottom of my post you’ll see three dots, click on that and you’ll see a PM option, when you get a reply it’ll show next to your account at the top right hand if the page (it’ll show a 1 or 2 or whatever depending on how many messages you’ve got), you click on that to take you through to your messages.

Thank you. I think I’ve sussed it out.